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Nikitin Leaves With Injury

Posted Jan 21, 2012
by Aaron Portzline

Blue Jackets defenseman Nikita Nikitin appeared to suffer a serious left ankle injury in the third period of Saturday's shootout loss to Detroit after getting shoved into the boards from behind by Red Wings forward Henrik Zetterberg.

No immediate update was available from interim coach Todd Richards after the game, but the replay was gruesome.

"Nikki’s a big part of our team and logs a lot of minutes, plays in all situations, so it’s a big hole," Richards said.

Nikitin was retrieving a puck in his own end at full speed, with Zetterberg trailing the play at 10:09 of the third. As he neared the end boards, Zetterberg placed his left glove in the small of Nikitin's back and appeared to shove him, if only gently, as they neared the goal line.

That was enough to knock Nikitin off-balance, and he slammed into the wall at full speed. All of his weight was absorbed by his left ankle.

Here's Richards after watching the hit on replay:

“It’s that danger area, where guys are going into the boards and at full speed when guys are moving. It’s dangerous. I watched the Boston (vs. NY Rangers) game today and they had a similar incident there, where a guy was going into the boards, and took a little push or shove to throw him off-balance … and that’s really where the danger comes.

"It’s not the physical hit. It’s throwing a guy off-balance. Looking at it … the hand on the back throws him off balance a little bit. The game is moving so fast now that, again, just a little bit here or there and you’re going into the boards at full speed.”

Obviously, Zetterberg has no reputation for dirty play. Any suggestion that the play was malicious on his part is absurd. He had 16 penalty minutes coming into the game, and picked up 15 on that play alone. Folks in Detroit are saying it's the first major penalty of his career. Can't imagine he's picked up too many game misconducts, either.

He spoke with Detroit reporters after the game:

“The puck went down to the corner and I chased down their defenseman. I had my hand on his back. I don’t think I pushed him hard. He went down. It looked bad, it looks really bad, so I can’t blame the referee for giving me five-minutes.”

“I really don’t know what to say, it looks bad.”

Zetterberg knows he's going to hear from his former teammate, NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan. He said he hoped to reach out to Nikitin before the Blue Jackets left Joe Louis Arena, too.

“You know what – it’s up to Shanny, it’s up to Shanny," Zetterberg said. Shanny and the league is going to review this and see what they feel. The rule is the rule, I made contact and he went down. Hopefully he’s OK, I didn’t mean to hurt him and we’ll have to wait and see.”

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